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Hollywood is a city in Broward County, Florida, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The average temperature is between 68 and 83 degrees. As of July 1, 2015 Hollywood has a population of 149,728. Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and is now the twelfth largest city in Florida. Hollywood is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people at the 2015 census.
Joseph W. Young founded the city in 1925. He dreamed of building a motion picture colony on the East Coast of the United States and named the town after Hollywood, California. Young bought up thousands of acres of land around 1920, and named his new town "Hollywood by the Sea" to distinguish it from his other real estate venture, "Hollywood in the Hills", in New York
Young had a vision of having lakes, golf courses, a luxury beach hotel, country clubs, and a main street, Hollywood Boulevard. After the 1926 Miami hurricane, Hollywood was severely damaged; local newspapers reported that Hollywood was second only to Miami in losses from the storm. Following upon Young's death in 1934, the city encountered more terrific hurricanes and not only that, but the stock market crashed with personal financial misfortunes. It felt as though the city was tumbling slowly piece by piece with all of those tragic events taking place.
Hollywood is a planned city. On Hollywood Boulevard is the Mediterranean-style Joseph Young Mansion, built around 1921, making it one of the oldest houses in Hollywood.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
🇫🇷 Le lac de Braies (en italien : lago di Braies, en allemand : Pragser Wildsee) est un petit lac alpin situé dans le val de Braies (une vallée latérale du val Pusteria) à 1 496 m d'altitude, dans la municipalité de Braies, à environ 97 kilomètres de Bolzano.
Situé au pied de l’imposante paroi rocheuse de la Croda del Becco (2 810 m), le lac se trouve dans les Dolomites de Braies, dans le parc naturel Fanes - Sennes et Braies. Il a une superficie d'environ 31 hectares, avec une longueur de 1,2 km et une largeur de 300 à 400 mètres. C'est l'un des lacs les plus profonds de la province autonome de Bolzano, avec une profondeur maximale de 36 mètres et une profondeur moyenne de 17 mètres.
Sa création est due au barrage du Rio Braies, impliqué par un glissement de terrain.
#126
🇩🇪 Der Pragser Wildsee (italienisch: lago di Braies, deutsch: Pragser Wildsee) ist ein kleiner Alpensee im Pragser Tal (einem Seitental des Pustertals) auf 1496 m Höhe in der Gemeinde Prags, etwa 97 km von Bozen entfernt.
Der See liegt am Fuße der imposanten Felswand Croda del Becco (2.810 m) und befindet sich in den Pragser Dolomiten im Naturpark Fanes - Sennes und Pragser Wildnis. Er hat eine Fläche von etwa 31 Hektar, ist 1,2 km lang und 300 bis 400 m breit. Er ist einer der tiefsten Seen in der Autonomen Provinz Bozen mit einer maximalen Tiefe von 36 Metern und einer durchschnittlichen Tiefe von 17 Metern.
Seine Entstehung ist auf den Staudamm des Rio Braies zurückzuführen, der durch einen Erdrutsch verwickelt wurde.
🇮🇹 Il lago di Braies (in italiano lago di Braies, in tedesco Pragser Wildsee) è un piccolo lago alpino situato nella Val di Braies (una valle laterale della Val Pusteria) a 1.496 m di altitudine, nel comune di Braies, a circa 97 chilometri da Bolzano.
Situato ai piedi dell'imponente parete rocciosa della Croda del Becco (2.810 m), il lago si trova nelle Dolomiti di Braies, nel Parco Naturale Fanes - Sennes e Braies. Si estende su una superficie di circa 31 ettari, è lungo 1,2 km e largo 300-400 metri. È uno dei laghi più profondi della Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano, con una profondità massima di 36 metri e una profondità media di 17 metri.
Si è formato in seguito allo sbarramento del Rio Braies da parte di una frana.
🇬🇧 Lake Braies (Italian: lago di Braies, German: Pragser Wildsee) is a small Alpine lake located in the Val de Braies (a side valley of the Val Pusteria) at an altitude of 1,496 m, in the municipality of Braies, about 97 kilometres from Bolzano.
Situated at the foot of the imposing rock face of the Croda del Becco (2,810 m), the lake is in the Braies Dolomites, in the Fanes - Sennes and Braies Natural Park. It covers an area of around 31 hectares, is 1.2 km long and 300-400 metres wide. It is one of the deepest lakes in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, with a maximum depth of 36 metres and an average depth of 17 metres.
It was created as a result of the damming of the Rio Braies by a landslide.
🇪🇸 El lago de Braies (en italiano: lago di Braies, en alemán: Pragser Wildsee) es un pequeño lago alpino situado en el Val de Braies (un valle lateral del Val Pusteria) a 1.496 m de altitud, en el municipio de Braies, a unos 97 kilómetros de Bolzano.
Situado al pie de la imponente pared rocosa de la Croda del Becco (2.810 m), el lago se encuentra en los Dolomitas de Braies, en el Parque Natural de Fanes - Sennes y Braies. Tiene una superficie de unas 31 hectáreas, 1,2 km de largo y 300-400 metros de ancho. Es uno de los lagos más profundos de la Provincia Autónoma de Bolzano, con una profundidad máxima de 36 metros y una profundidad media de 17 metros.
Se creó como consecuencia del represamiento del río Braies por un corrimiento de tierras.
The Robot restaurant offers quite average food and drink, but is nevertheless one of the most bizarre things you will see in Tokyo, in fact, anywhere!
Shinjuku’s Kabukicho district, Japan
February, 2019
Landscape of Tibet
Tibet is the highest country on earth with an average elevation of over 4000m. The lowest regions of Tibet are still over 2000m above sea level with Jomo Langma (Everest,Sagarmatha) ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ being the highest point at 8848m. Tibet is covered in grasslands, mountains and valleys.
Many of Asia’s largest rivers have their headwaters in Tibet such as the Ma chu རྨ་ཆུ་ ( Yellow River), Dri chu འབྲི་ཆུ་ (Yangtze), Nag chu ནག་ཆུ་ - རྒྱ་མོ་རྔུལ་ཆུ (Salween), Yarlung Tsangpo ཡར་ཀླུངས་གཙང་པོ་ (Brahmaputra) and Dza chu རྫ་ཆུ་ (Mekong). Western Tibet (Ngari) is a high, arid region with few people, while southeast Tibet (Kham) is forested and suitable for farming. Northern Tibet (Amdo) is covered in vast grasslands filled with yaks and sheep and central Tibet (U-Tsang) is the most densely populated area of Tibet lying along the fertile Yarlung Valley.
Common Name: Pelicans
Scientific Name: Pelecanus
Type: Birds
Diet: Carnivores
Average life span in The Wild: 10 to 25 years
Size: Body, 5.8 ft; wingspan, 10 ft
Weight: 30 lbs
Size relative to a 6-ft man:
There are more than half a dozen species of pelicans, but all of them have the famous throat pouch for which the birds are best known. These large birds use their elastic pouches to catch fish—though different species use it in different ways.
Many pelicans fish by swimming in cooperative groups. They may form a line or a "U" shape and drive fish into shallow water by beating their wings on the surface. When fish congregate in the shallows, the pelicans simply scoop them up. The brown pelican, on the other hand, dives on fish (usually a type of herring called menhaden) from above and snares them in its bill. Pelicans do not store fish in their pouch, but simply use it to catch them and then tip it back to drain out water and swallow the fish immediately. The American white pelican can hold some 3 gallons of water in its bill. Young pelicans feed by sticking their bills into their parents' throats to retrieve food.
Pelicans are found on many of the world's coastlines and also along lakes and rivers. They are social birds and typically travel in flocks, often strung out in a line. They also breed in groups called colonies, which typically gather on islands.
These seabirds are threatened by chemical pesticides, such as DDT, which damaged the eggs of pelicans and many other species.
The Flemish Giant rabbit (Dutch: Vlaamse reus) is the largest breed of domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus). They weigh 6.8 kilograms (15 lb) on average, though the largest ones can weigh up to 22 kilograms (49 lb). Historically they are a utility breed used for their fur and meat. In the modern day, they are no longer commonly raised for meat, due to their slow growth and very large bones, and are raised for exhibition at rabbit shows. They are often kept as pets as they are known for being docile and patient when being handled.
Four screws, four sizes, two different sub-types.
Thirty weeks (IN A ROW) of MacroMondays completed since joining. Three x Explored. Average views excluding the three explored is around 1500 views. 22 weeks to go for one year.
Keeping it simple and casual today, you know how I do.
Backdrop: Pseudo - Gym Entrance Scene
Bag: REIGN. - Beach bum bag
Cup: Besom ~ Beauty Tumblers #5
//Wearing//
Hair: Stealthic - Aquaria
Top: TETRA - ruffle crop top
Wrists: Quirky&LovelyDisarray. - Rebel Bracelet
Rings: (Yummy) Minimalist Rings
Bottom: Blueberry - Rie - torn jeans
Shoes: REIGN. - Mini Slips
i was on Jupiter gettin' more stupider
maybe that's why i don't know they're *brass* knuckles and not steel knuckles. lol! And we thought he was just an average masked man... huh.
had the very best time yesterday with my favorite people. there are about 4 other shots along this line... i hope you get to see those too b/c mine is not the best of them... i was just feeling a little gassy love this morning ;)
Jupiter on September 11th. Transparency was above average with little to no wildfire smoke in the sky. Seeing started out around average, but got a but better as the night went on. For Jupiter you can see Oval BA with it's slightly yellow/orange tinge to the lower left and several white ovals lining up to the right of it.
The blacksmith lapwing or blacksmith plover (Vanellus armatus) occurs commonly from Kenya through central Tanzania to southern and southwestern Africa.
A common sight around water, including pans, lakes, rivers, dams, estuaries and salt pans, and also short grasslands, sports fields and wet pastures, Blacksmith Lapwings are noisy and conspicuous birds. They have a characteristic ‘tink tink tink’ or ‘klink klink klink’ call, which they make from the ground (where they spend most of their time searching for food or tending to chicks) or in flight. They can be found singly, in pairs or in small groups.
It is not difficult to recognise a Blacksmith Lapwing. Their plumage is boldly marked in black, white and grey, and they are unlikely to be mistaken for other species. They have grey and black wings, while the rest of the body and the head are boldly patterned in white and black - also the underparts. Females are on average bigger than the males, but both sexes generally look alike.
Photographed on a late evening game drive at the Athi Basin Dam in Nairobi National Park, Kenya.
We are almost close to end of March, still you could see icy formations on the rocks and by the lake shore, colder than the previous average. Won't be too long before the spring steps in...
Press L for better viewing, my friends.
You can also find me on www.azimaging.ca and www.500px.com/azimaging.
I love to go to movies. In a theatre with a crowd. The crowd is optional, but prefered...
I probably average one a week during the course of a year.
A FEW RANDOM THOUGHTS AND WORTHLESS OPINIONS...
I hate arriving late for a movie. If the show is about to start... be prepared to see something else or buy tickets for the next showing. "I'm very anal about this". The last time I walked into a darkened theatre was the final installment of "Star Wars". This was only because I had already seen it... I like to have my popcorn and be seated before the coming attractions... "coming attractions" ARE a part of the movie experience. Commercials, on the other hand, suck.
Jodie Foster is the only movie star who's films I go to just because she's in them.
Russell Crow is my favorite actor. I am still miffed that he did not win the Oscar for "A Beautiful Mind". A film which won "Best Picture", "Best Director", "Best S. Actress", and "Best Writing". All for a movie in which every scene surrounds his character. losing to Denzel Washington(a very good performance) in "Training Day"(an ok film)... so wrong.
... that said. I do think Halle Berry was brilliant in "Monster's Ball". The last ten minutes alone were worthy of an Oscar nomination. She had very little dialogue during this part of the film. The emotions were conveyed in her facial expressions and body language. "Simply amazing"
"As Good As It Gets" is that rare movie where I leave the theatre wishing the characters would just keep going... the only film since then to bring out this response in me was "Friends With Money". A movie for which I have yet to lend to anyone who liked it.
(Cinnyris osea)
Ezuz
Israel
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All my photos are now organized into sets by the country where they were taken, by taxonomic order, by family, by species (often with just one photo for the rarer ones), and by the date they were taken.
So, you may find:
- All the photos for this trip Israel (2023) (54)
- All the photos for this order PASSERIFORMES (3553)
- All the photos for this family Nectariniidae (Nectariniídeos) (55)
- All the photos for this species Cinnyris osea (1)
- All the photos taken this day 2023/07/15 (18)
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8 November 2020: Update on The Corona Pandemic – The average number of people testing positive per day over the past week has fallen with a quarter. Belgium also reported a slight fall in the total number of patients being hospitalized with the virus, however, the pressure on intensive care units continues to rise and the number of deaths has gone up. The reproduction number came down to 0.99. There was also other good news. Last evening the US media declared Joe Biden as next president. What a week! This was a close election, far closer than it should have been, and there is simply no excuse for that. If we were looking at a foreign country with America’s level of political dysfunction, we would probably consider it on the edge of becoming a failed state. Anyway, let’s hope that the worst of the pandemic is behind us and that the US slowly but surely will recover from the deepest political crisis it has seen in decades. On display today is a panoramic shot of the Graslei, one of the most beautiful spots in the center of the city – Graslei, Ghent, Belgium.
Adjunto una deliciosa melodía por uno de los mejores saxofonistas del mundo JAN GARBAREK
Pulsar botón derecho para abrir en una nueva pestaña ♫♫
www.fluidr.com/photos/35196188@N03
www.youtube.com/user/25elgaucho
www.youtube.com/user/25elgaucho/videos?tag_id=&view=0...
La Galaxia de la Vía Láctea o simplemente Vía Láctea es la galaxia espiral en la que se encuentra el Sistema Solar y, por ende, la Tierra. Según las observaciones, posee una masa de 1012 masas solares y es una espiral barrada; con un diámetro medio de unos 100.000 años luz, estos son aproximadamente 1 trillón de km, se calcula que contiene entre 200.000 millones y 400.000 millones de estrellas. La distancia desde el Sol hasta el centro de la galaxia es de alrededor de 27.700 años luz (8.500 pc, es decir, el 55 por ciento del radio total galáctico). La Vía Láctea forma parte de un conjunto de unas cuarenta galaxias llamado Grupo Local, y es la segunda más grande y brillante tras la Galaxia de Andrómeda (aunque puede ser la más masiva, al mostrar un estudio reciente que nuestra galaxia es un 50 % más masiva de lo que se creía anteriormente.
The Milky Way Galaxy or just Milky Way is a spiral galaxy in which the Solar System is found and therefore the Earth. According to the observations, has a mass of 1012 solar masses and is a barred spiral; with an average diameter of about 100,000 light years, they are about 1 trillion km, is estimated to contain between 200,000 million and 400,000 million stars. The distance from the Sun to the center of the galaxy is about 27,700 light (8.500 pc, ie 55 percent of the total galactic radio) years. The Milky Way is part of a group of about forty galaxies called the Local Group, and is the second largest and brightest after the Andromeda Galaxy (although it may be the most massive, a recent study by showing that our galaxy is 50% more massive than previously believed.
Gullfoss (Golden Falls) is undoubtedly the most visited waterfall in Iceland, a highlight of the 'must do' Golden Circle day trip from Reykjavík.
The main source of the Hvítá (simply 'White') River, is Langjökull, Iceland´s second largest glacier – if you look closely, the white 'clouds' on the skyline are snow-covered peaks. The river is entirely unregulated at this point; in fact, it was abortive attempts to exploit Gullfoss for hydropower that eventually resulted in the waterfall being donated to the state for protection. Flow over the waterfall is therefore natural, averaging 140 m³/s in the summer and 80 m³/s in winter, though the peak recorded flood was an incredible 2,000 m³/s.
The drop, spanning the full 175 m width of the river, is 32 m in two stages which, unusually, are perpendicular to one another. The first cascades 11 m, roughly north to south, then the river plummets east to west over a cliff into Gullfossgjúfur, a gorge 20 m wide and 2.5 km long, with walls up to 70 m in height, probably formed by a glacial burst flood. This second drop is 'only' 21 m, but from here at the most popular viewpoint one can't see into Gullfossgjúfur, tempting imagination to extrapolate.
Even in May air temperatures were low, with spray settling on the surrounding area as frost.
[Image reached no.179 in Flickr Explore on 25/12/18! Thanks!]
This is a pretty normal looking place but I wanted to make it super creepy with a very long exposure, which was the theme of the day, and some post processing. Probably post a normal (long exposure) colour version at some point...
Here i get soaking wet because i need to save my tripod. I already put my tripod on the dry part of the stones so i can get my camera from the bag 5 mtrs behind me. But sometimes there are waves much bigger then the average ones. I need to go in the water till my waist to get my tripod back. Actually It was little bit dangerous, the power of the returning water was really so strong i am not a small guy but i really need to fight to keep standing and walk back.
Very good here was the hotel.
The hotel is 100 mtr from this place, and when the weather is good you get breakfast on the beach.
03-November-2023
It happens on average every 15 years, now around 20, that the south-westerly wind blows strong and prolonged into the Gulf of Trieste coming from northern Romagna.
The gulf is very windy, but there are also long periods of calm, but no wind, even the strong Bora, can create high waves, given that within this stretch of sea the maximum distances between the coasts are between 20 and 30km.
The only exception is provided by the wind that comes from the south-west in the wind rose and enters the only opening towards the rest of the Adriatic between the Grado peninsula (FVG, Italy) and tip/rt Savudrija (Istra, Hrvatska).
Through this passage the wind fishes on approximately 250km of sea surface and manages to generate waves of up to 3/4m (sea force 4/5 on the Douglas scale) which are decidedly important values for the area.
This is what happened on Friday 3 November 2023, to which a strong high tide was added, flooding the adjacent state road 14 (viale Miramare) in the Barcola section and where wood, branches, porphyry cubes, concrete blocks were dragged (dragged for meters and metres) algae, stones, sea gravel and seafood.
The road surface is approximately 6m above the sea level.
The photos were taken in reportage style, so point and shoot without paying too much attention to the composition and limiting the image quality to have a quick shot with very short times.
The purpose is not that of likes, obviously, but to document an event which for those who know these areas with little waves was very significant.
The precedents of the last 70 years are very few (1957, 1969, 1984 and 2003) and each time the seafront and the popular bathing establishments have been strengthened so, from the significant damage that occurred, it can be argued that it could have been the strongest storm ever or, at least, among the strongest for this area.
This Image won the Foreign Category in the 2008 IYPE Du Noyer Competition
You can find more photos from my Chile Trip HERE.
The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the most important tourist attractions in the Argentine Patagonia. The terminus of the glacier is 5 km wide, with an average height of 60 meters above the surface of the water, with a total ice depth of 170 meters.
At its deepest part, the glacier has a depth of approximately 700 m. The 250 km² ice formation, of 30 km in length, is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the Andes system shared with Chile. This icefield is the world's third largest reserve of fresh water.
The Perito Moreno Glacier advances at a speed of up to 2 m per day (around 700 m per year) - but it also loses mass at approximately the same rate, meaning that aside from small variations, its terminus has not advanced or receded in the past 90 years. The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating.
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide 2nd Edition with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Rook (Corvus frugilegus) is a member of the Corvidae family in the passerine order of birds. Named by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, the species name frugilegus is Latin for "food-gathering".
Rooks are distinguished from similar members of the crow family by the bare grey-white skin around the base of the adult's bill in front of the eyes. The feathering around the legs also look shaggier and laxer than the congeneric Carrion Crow. The juvenile is superficially more similar to the Crow because it lacks the bare patch at the base of the bill, but it loses the facial feathers after about six months. Collective nouns for rooks include building, parliament, clamour and storytelling. Nesting is always colonial (rookeries), usually in the very tops of the trees. Branches and twigs are broken off trees (very rarely picked up off the ground), though as many are likely to be stolen from nearby nests as are collected from trees.
Though resident in Great Britain, Ireland and much of north and central Europe, vagrant to Iceland and northern Scandinavia, it also occurs as an eastern race in Asia where it differs in being very slightly smaller on average, and having a somewhat more fully feathered face.
In captivity, when confronted with problems, rooks have recently been documented as one of multiple species of bird capable of tool use to obtain a goal. (wikipedia)
In the 7 years that I have been regularly walking through Griffith Park, Dublin 9, Rooks have only become a regular sight in the last few months. A very welcome addition to the avifauna of the park.
Colorado's snowpack is well above average state-wide, in some regions over 150% above average. This is good news after last year's severe drought. Our hope now is for average temperatures for the next couple of months so it doesn't melt and runoff too fast.
This shot is of the rugged Gore Range from near Ute Pass north of Silverthorne.
Zeiss 350/5.6 Tele-Superachromat | f/11 | 2m00s, Automated Frame Average
P11_24_2021_1507_2m00s_AFA_2x1_25-50-25-denoise_v2-FrameShop
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• LUXECODE x Tres Chic Event
Lipstick Bag FP by @itslc.sl
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Residential Luxe Garage by @scenery.sl
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I follow Cryptid a bit, until he led me to a small campfire with two other soldiers sitting around it. he led me over to the one on the north side of the fire, and introduced me. "This is Mackenzie, but we call him 'Klip.' I shook his hand, and told him my name. I told him a bit about myself, being overwatch and all. Then, out of the blue, the other soldier piped up, rather resentfully, "What are you, some damned super-soldier? The perfect sniper, eh?"
A haunted look must have come to my eyes; I could see it reflected in the gaze of the kid, Klip. "No, I'm not perfect, or even close," I responded. Klip softly asked me to continue. So, I did.
"I wasn't that much of an excellent shot, up through a few years ago. I was still fresh meat then, near the beginnings of the war. I was responsible for covering my unit in a rather ugly section of a city. Twenty-three men had their lives depending on me to keep them covered, and to give them warning of any attacks. I stopped looking for a brief moment, and by the time I looked back, the screams had begun. The Urags had been laying in wait, for a hapless unit of Earthlings to slaughter. Twenty three men, who died because of my carelessness. I should have seen the signs, should have warned them. Ever since then, I have dedicated myself to being the best sniper I could be. Many of my exploits are exaggerated, but I can run and gun along with the rest of them."
The group had gone quiet for my tale. There were several moments of tense silence, until the offending soldier whispered, "I'm sorry. I had no idea."
I took it in silence. It hurt, hurt badly that these soldiers can look upon their own allies with resentment, could judge without knowledge. I needed to get out of where I was, needed a change of scenery. So, through some cosmic flip of a coin, a coin scarred and malformed through eons of abuse, I decided to go out on a limb and ask these men whom I did not know, did not know other than the wind in their step and the fire of their guns, to hold my future in their response. "I could join your team, if you'd have me. Sniping isn't all I'm good at."
Average conditions and a cliched but incredibly beautiful location...a record shot.
I wasn't really there to take photographs anyway, just a good catch up with my very good friends and great photographers Kris Williams and Helen Iles.
We all live in North Wales and feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such amazing scenery.
CSX W009 switches from track 2 to 1 at MARC Dorsey Station. This isn’t a particularly good shot, a generic angle, but I think it came out really nice.
I took this photo somewhere in central Kentucky. At the time, I forgot to jot down the exact location.. Kentucky is full of old barns and old abandoned houses that make for some great photographic opportunities if you like capturing that type of images. There is something about these old barns that I find appealing and I have a hard time putting it into words. I think of the life of extreme hard work, tough and practical men and women, and—contrary to Hollywood's stereotypical portrayal of farmers and rural folk as ignorant—I find them to be above-average in intelligence and practical wisdom.
Polemaetus bellicosus
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The Martial Eagle is the largest Eagle found in Africa and is the 5th heaviest (on average) Eagle in the world. Conservation Status-Threatened/Vulnerable
Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda, Africa
Thanks to our amazing Guides: John Muwaita (jonamez212@gmail.com) & Medi (1,000 Shades of Green)
Here in Barnet the average winter temperature does not usually fall below 2 degrees C (35.6 F) so the recent cold blast -5 degrees C (23 F) was a bit of a shock. This is a series of 5 photos taken in the cold weather
How does it last the blink of an eye? You could measure it, if you really want to, but the truth is that we are so accustomed to blink our eyes that we are almost entirely unaware of the whole thing. Our brain compensates for it. So, in a way, we could say that a blink of an eye has an infinitesimal duration. The amazing thing I was thinking of while processing this fireflies shot - while recalling the actual experience - is that a whole, huge lot of things happen in the blink of an eye. Proteins in our cells are freshly synthetised; old, worn-out proteins are digested and reduced to aminoacids to be recycled; tiny yet powerful molecules of ATP continually bind to enzymes, allowing them to perform their "unlawful" duties at amazing rates; B lymphocytes produce and refine astronomical quantities and varieties of antibodies to fight some intruding pathogen; neurons alternately fire and rest in what we could envisage as, well, an astoundingly complex network of hyperfast fireflies. In the blink of an eye whole universes are born, and whole worlds are destroyed. We are so bound to our perception of time, to our own timescale, that it is utterly difficult for us to imagine what is happening on different timescales. In a mere hour a bacterial colony can proliferate enormously and, sadly, viruses can get huge hordes of self-copies at the expense of an unwittingly complicit cell.
There are further non-human timescales though, well beyond the microscopic word of cells or molecules. It is not by chance that for centuries people have been believing that the world had truly been created in seven days (well, actually six) and that everything - from geology to animals and plants - have remained basically unchanged since then. And that fossils were either remains of antediluvian creatures or tricks of the devil to test our faith and potentially lead us astray.
Well my friends, somehow this photo has reminded me that the world - both the micro- and the macroscopic - is something unutterably complex, almost beyond our grasp (almost being the key of everything). The quest for its understanding is a collective, neverending adventure. I often feel so small that even these fireflies, with their wonders, humble the feeling of being part of the species who believe to be master of the world. My mind is a minute firefly lost in a vast expanse of darkness. Yet I cannot give up. We cannot give up, since we "were not made to live [our] lives as brutes, / but to be followers of worth and knowledge" (Divine Comedy, Inferno, 26). Maybe our lives are the blink of an eye in the unutterable spatial and temporal vastness of the universe. But they are well worth living.
It has always been one of my unfulfilled dreams to photograph fireflies, which, sadly, are becoming a rarity in our countryside; the positive effects of the lockdown for the environment have probably favoured a blooming this year, so I decided to have a try. I followed the advices of a master of fireflies photography, the Bulgarian photographer Hristo Svinarov. However I will eagerly accept hints and positive criticism from everyone who will be so kind to offer it.
In my second fireflies session I have become a little more confident in my possibilities. I have tried to lower the ISO below 1000, and this is by itself a huge step towards better photos; moreover I have somehow dared more in composition. I am forced to use my Samyang 14 mm, which is the only fast-aperture lens I have in my gear, so I ventured nearer and nearer, until I was literally surrounded by dancing fireflies.
I have stacked 15 5-second photos with the Gimp. As the basic layer I used an image I have obtained by averaging the photos with John Paul ChaCha's Chasys Draw IES Artist: the fireflies themselves were almost obliterated but the landscape were effectively denoised, while the details were improved. In this photo I have processed separately the image which would have been the basic layer, just in the same way as any other photo - luminosity masks, and so on. When I was satisfied with the landscape I faced a new problem: it was just like I wanted it to be, so the 15 layers to be blended (those actually containing the fireflies) should not alter it - they should only add the precious fireflies. After a good bit of trial and error I developed my own workflow: a) duplicate one of the fireflies layers; b) extract LAB L component; c) in the bw image so obtained play with levels to force all the dark tones to black, then lower the light tones slider to better the fireflies signal; d) manually paint out the sky and the trees, and the other unwanted parts still visible (e.g. the water in the ditch); e) use this image showing only the fireflies as the layer mask of the original photo; f) set the blending mode to Addition: at this point the fireflies appear in the scene; g) duplicate 4 times the layer and then merge down the copies to get only one layer with the fireflies signal very naturally amplified; h) proceed in this way for all the (gasp) 15 shots; i) after all this, you can inspect the contribution of every layer to the result and, if needed, you can duplicate it and blend with Addition or Dodge to amplify it.
This species averages 51 cm in length. Its long, pointed grey and black tail with a white median band is distinctive. A white wing patch is conspicuous in flight. The bill is black in male, pea-green in the female, is a widespread bird of Africa in the turaco family.
(Malacorhynchus membranaceus)
Western Treatment Plant - Werribee - VIC
Austrália
Far, far away
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All my photos are now organized into sets by the country where they were taken, by taxonomic order, by family, by species (often with just one photo for the rarer ones), and by the date they were taken.
So, you may find:
- All the photos for this trip Austrália (2024) (309)
- All the photos for this order ANSERIFORMES (176)
- All the photos for this family Anatidae (Anatídeos) (194)
- All the photos for this species Malacorhynchus membranaceus (1)
- All the photos taken this day 2024/11/02 (27)
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Average red-bellied trogon of subtropical forests. Male is iridescent green on breast, head, and back; female is brown. Namesake dark mask is usually obvious, especially on females. Nearly identical to Collared Trogon but very little overlap; Masked is almost always found at higher elevations. Where both are possible, look especially at tail pattern on males: large white tips on underside of tail feathers, otherwise dark with very fine white barring.
This one was photographed in Ecuador guided by Neotropic Photo Tours.
cattle, with their typical mouth-to-the-ground pose
a beef steer on average eats about 12kg of grass per day
....that's why they are nearly always eating.
Most of us humans (certainly us folks on Flickr that live in rich countries) have a much easier time finding calories ...for work rest and play ...and so we tend to look up more often than cattle.
Undertones - Mars Bar
The fortified evangelical church of Cincșor was built in the 14th century.
The settlement was first documented in 1377 in the papal tax lists (Rudbertus de Parvo Promotorio), the second mention being in 1434 when it appeared under the name of "Kyssenk". During the following centuries, Cincșor became a real bastion on the route of the Olt on the path of the migratory peoples, the Turks and the Tatars. The fortified church dates from this first period.
The church with a tower to the west was erected between 1421 and 1427 and dedicated to the "holy apostles Peter and Paul". In the middle of the 15th century, the first enclosure was erected and a defense floor was added above the choir. The fortified church of Cincșor is one of the best preserved churches in Transylvania, the changes that have taken place over the centuries are minimal.
The church organ was brought by Samuel Matz Birthalm and is dated 1805. The Cincșor organ is one of the most famous church organs in Transylvania. In the bell tower, there are two bells, a large one dating from 1937 and an average dating from 1644.
The famous Transylvanian painter Carl Dörschlag painted the current altar in 1868. The old altar of the triptych is located in the country's museum in Făgăraș
In 2011, the village community of Saxon origin had only 22 inhabitants.